Platinum Mastering: Mastered for iTunes

Abstract:Mastering Apple Inc.'s "Mastered for iTunes" Initiative, the Science, the Procedures and the Results

Apple's iTunes Store is the largest music vendor in the world. Last year, with the introduction of Colbie Caillat's All of You download, they began selling higher fidelity AAC encodes for no additional cost to the consumer. Some mastering and recording engineers have misunderstood what it is about and there has been a surprising amount of negative and incorrect press about what it does and does not do. Observing Apple's market share, the new procedure should be understood by every mastering engineer. The Apple "Mastered for iTunes" initiative is based on 100% solid science and it can sometimes yield AAC encodes so close to the 44-kHz/24 bit PCM encode masters that many have failed an A-B-X listening test. Please come and find out all there is to know and ask questions.